One Last Summer Mystery
by WockioTockio
Summary: Dipper and Mabel enjoy their last week at Gravity Falls after Weirdmaggedon spending time with their friends and family. While it seems like everything finally calmed down, the Pines don't know that there is still one last summer mystery that awaits to be solved. Hint: Underlining matters!
1. Introduction: Tourist Nightmare

Dipper was running through the woods, dodging the trees and plants and trying to not stumble because of the wet dirt.

"Dipper, keep running, no matter what happens!" said the voice of Grunkle Ford. It came from far away behind the trees, from where he couldn't save him.

He felt like his legs were iron, but he he had to keep running, no matter what, keep running.

After some minutes passed Dipper simply couldn't run anymore. He fell into the soft dirt just as he heard a mysterious, echoed voice spell out a message letter by letter. What he heard was this strange, nonsense message: Edfnzdugv, wkdw lv krz olih jrhv odg, dqg L zloo vhfuhwob vdb Eohqglq lv dovr d frzdug, juhdw nhhshu!

Dipper suddenly felt something was watching him. He stood up and turned around. He saw someone or something behind the tall oak trees. He didn't even know what it was, but it reminded him of pain, suffering, sadness, depression, heartbreaks, nightmares, hate, death...

Death...

...

"Dipper, wake up! Look at the Goodbye sweater I made for Grunkle Stan! Do you think he's going to wear it?"

Dipper woke up. He opened his eyes a little bit and saw the biography of Julius Caesar he had been reading yesterday lying on his chest.

"C'mon Dipper, stop ignoring me! I know you are awake." Mabel said as the first letter of the pink and yellow Goodbye sweater for Grunkle Stan fell off.

"Oops, gotta sew that again."


	2. I: A Tale of Rival Stans

"Mabel, it's 7:00 a.m. Nothing is worth waking up at 7 in the morning on summer, except illegal fireworks"

Mabel remembered the day where she, Dipper and Grunkle Stan lit up fireworks in the rooftop. Now that she thought about it, it made a lot of sense that he accompanied them, he was celebrating for his twin brother's return.

"C'mon Dipper, stop being such a jerk!" Mabel replied as she picked up her needle and thread to sew the letter "G" of "Goodbye"of the sweater.

For the following 3 hours Mabel tried to fix Stan's sweater since every time she fixed a letter the one right next to it fell off, while Dipper wrote down on a paper the mysterious code he heard on his dream. He decided to consult the copy made by the cloning copy machine of Journal #2 for help. Time went by quickly because Dipper entertained himself reading the entire Journal for the tenth time, which made him forget about his dream. He didn't remember about it until Grunkle Stan appeared at the door, bursting his inner thought bubble.

"Kids, time for breakfast. I prepared some scrambled eggs with a special touch!"

"Oh, hi Grunkle Stan... OH MY GOSH GRUNKLE STAN!" Mabel shouted as she hid the Goodbye sweater behind her.

"Hey kiddo, I know I'm not the best looking guy around but don't act like if I was some kind of monster."

"Sorry Grunkle Stan, I didn't mean it. Will you forgive me? she asked Stan while she made a cute puppy face.

"Don't worry pumpkin, I do. Just get down to eat breakfast as soon as possible." Stan replied while he shut the door behind him.

"What's up with that Mabel?" Dipper asked.

"I don't want him to know about the sweater, I want it to be a surprise!"

Mabel putted on a sweater full of pink and violet flowers.

"Don't you think it's already a bit too hot outside to be wearing a sweater Mabel?"

"Nope." She winked.

The mystery twins rushed down the stairs and were welcomed with the familiar smell of scrambled eggs when they entered the kitchen.

Grunkle Ford was already sitting in the table, reading the latest issue of "The Gravity Falls Gossiper".

"Oh, good morning kids." Grunkle Ford said.

"Hi Grunkle Ford. What are you doing?" Dipper asked.

"I'm reading this... how were they called? Oh yeah, newspaper, you know, to update and get used to the modern world and stuff." he replied.

"Breakfast's ready!" Stan said as he served the scrambled eggs on everybody's dishes.

"Umm, Stan, is this hair in the eggs?" Ford asked as he examined the food on his plate.

"Yup! That's how Grunkle Stan prepares them!" Mabel replied cheerfully while she started eating the eggs.

"Kid, don't eat that! It's gross". Ford said while making a repulsion gesture.

Dipper got the scrambled eggs full of hair out from Mabel's mouth just in time before she swallowed them.

"What? You think you can prepare a better dish pointdexter?" Stan asked.

"At the very least I'd make sure to not leave hair on it." Ford answered back.

The original mystery twins looked at each other fiercely.

"Are you challenging me Ford?" said Stan while he pointed at Ford with his hand covered in a kitchen glove full of sparkling kittens made by Mabel.

Ford laughed as everyone looked at him confused.

"What's so funny" Stan asked in a daunting tone.

"Sorry, I just can't take you seriously with those kitchen gloves" replied Ford, laughing again right after.

"Guys, I thought you already forgave each other after Weirdmaggedon!" Mabel argued.

"We did, although this natural rivalry between twins just never dies" Grunkle Ford replied.

"Maybe you should switch positions to, you know, figure out who's the alpha twin." Dipper proposed.

The confused looks now pointed at Dipper.

"Watcha mean kiddo?" Stan asked.

"I mean that you could switch positions. Grunkle Ford would run the shack for a day while you'd catch a monster." The boy explained.

"Sounds like a good idea to me. I certainly doubt that it's going to be a busy day, people already experienced enough weirdness for a lifetime. Are you up to it Stan?" Grunkle Ford asked.

"Well, I mean, it's just a monster right? How hard could it be? Maybe I could even use your whacky nerd books to make the job even easier." Stan replied.

"I officially declare that the Stanchurian Competition has started!" Mabel shouted at the top of her lungs while standing in the table, spilling her scrambled eggs all over the floor.

"Geez, relax Mabel, seriously? Go for the mop." Stan said.

After the Pines family ate dinner and Mabel cleaned the floor the Stanchurian Competition finally started.

"Dipper, come here for a second" Ford whispered with a very serious tone to the boy, making him gestures so that he would come with him to the living room.

Dipper walked into the TV room, wondering what Ford was going to tell him about? A new secret mission? Ford giving him the brand new Journal #4 as a birthday gift? A photo of Wendy in her red bathing suit? Wait, why would Ford show him that? He became so excited by this thoughts that he accidentally collided with the sofa.

"What's going on?" Dipper replied curiously, putting himself back in place.

"Remember the time when we visited the extraterrestrial facility?"

"Yeah! I still remember that feeling when alines were revealed to me!"

"Well, I need to go back. I've detected some anomalies going on around that area. Dipper, would you like to go with me?"

"Of course! I'll gear up."

"Wait, go easy" Grunkle Ford said with a little laugh at the end "I haven't prepared the necessary gear yet, so we will go tomorrow."

"Can't wait!"

"Hey, Dipper, on an unrelated topic, does anybody in the shack has any experience on managing it? You know, aside from Stan."

"Well, I suppose Soos but he'll be busy working."

"Thanks anyways Dipper. I'll let you know the hour of our adventure tomorrow"

"I'll be waiting!"

Dipper walked to the stairs. He stumbled on the first step because of two reasons: He was pretty excited about the new mission (about Wendy too man) and there were stains of Mabel juice on every single step.

"Aghh, this thing smells to vigenere, I mean, vinegar" the boy thought. He got up and covered his nose, when he suddenly realized something.

"Great Uncle Ford, wait! I just remembered that Mabel ran the shack once!"

"Oh, I see" Ford replied with a look of triumph on his face. "Wait, is that actually legal?" Ford wondered, scratching his chin.

"As Grunkle Stan says, everything's legal when there are no cops around!"

"Hehehe. He's just like he was back then." Ford said with a bit of nostalgia in his words. "Well, see ya Dipper".

"Goodbye Great Uncle Ford".

Dipper started rushing up the stairs, thinking about what he'd do in the afternoon. He thought about reading the journals (and Wendy too man), which lead him to...

"Ughh, stop being so paranoic, nightmares are just nightmares" The boy said to himself.

Before Dipper could go into his room Grunkle Stan went upstairs and approached him.

"Hey Dipper, how's it hangin'?"

"What's up Grunkle Stan"?

"Look kiddo, I've become more used to all the supernatural stuff in this town, specially after the Oddpocalypse, but I still don't have any experience on how to deal with it, and I'm competing against the guy who does. However, you two have spent a lot of time together these last few weeks. You see where I'm goin'?"

Stan winked and accidentally let out a burp which ruined the point he was trying to get across.

"Nope".

"I want you to help me Mr. Oblivious." said Grunkle Stan in a sarcastic tone, giving a pat into Dipper's back making him stumble.

Stan laughed as the boy got up and shrugged it off.

"You seriously need to hit up the gym."

"Whatever, back to the topic, isn't that like cheating."

"Calm down kid, i'd still be the one who catches the monster, you would just guide me to it, or whatever."

"And why should I do that?"

"Wendy's arriving soon. You want me to show her all of those pubert love cards that you threw away?"

Dipper freaked out and facepalmed as he had never facepalmed in his life.

"STAN! HOW COULD YOU? DID YOU READ THEM?"

"Hehehe, obviously! The part I laughed the most at was wh-"

"Just stop! I'll do anything but don't show those cards to Wendy, or anybody else for that matter."

"As long as you help me with the monster thing, don't worry, I'll keep them around with me for when I'm not in a good mood." Stan said giggling at the end of the sentence.

"C'mon Grunkle Stan, seriously?"

Dipper and Stan went to the vending machine that lead to the basement. At the same time Ford was going upstairs. He knocked the twins' room door.

"Hey Mabel, can you come here for a second?"

Mabel opened the door.

"Sure Grunkle Ford".

"Look Mabel, I don't have any experience in running a business and I certainly don't wanna lose to Stan. Dipper told me you have experience in running the shack. I was wondering if you could give me a little hand?"

"But isn't that like cheating?"

"I see it more as helping, but I get it if you don't agree" said Stanford with a little sad tone in the last part. Sometimes he had to be cunning. After all, he was surrounded by two great scam artists his entire life.

"Now that I'm thinking I didn't even considered making you a sweater. Maybe this can be your gift from me to you Grunkle Ford!"

"So it's a deal?"

"It's a Deal!"

They shook hands. The action made both remember the scam artist that threatened their lives on various situations, although neither of them mentioned it.

Both Mabel and Ford rushed down the stairs and went to the Gift Shop. Wendy had just arrived.

"Hi Mabel, what's up?" They both clashed fists.

"Hello Wendy!" said Mabel.

"Hi Mr. Pines. What's up with that outfit? It makes you look nerdier than usual." said Wendy.

"Hi Wendy. Actually I'm Ford, I'll be taking Stan's place for the rest of the day".

"Oh, cool. I'll be at the counter then".

Wendy sat in her usual place and started reading the latest issue of her favorite magazine just as Soos arrived.

"What's up hambone?" They both high-fived.

"Hi Soos!" said Mabel.

"Hello Mr. Pines. I got some new ideas for the Mystery Shack. Wanna hear them?" Soos asked.

Ford explained the situation again just like he did to Wendy.

"Oh, I see. I'll wait for tomorrow to talk with him then."

Ford went from a feeling of triumph to being really upset.

"Why don't we just talk about your ideas right now? I'm sure he'd approve them."

"Mmm, I'm not too sure. Without Stan's approval?"

"C'mon Soos, do it for Grunkle Ford!" Mabel supplicated to Soos with her adorable puppy face. She still felt bad for not thinking about Grunkle Ford when making the Goodbye sweater.

"Ok, I guess I'll then. I have lots of them, lots of them dudes. Hehe."

The trio went into the museum and started to create attractions based on the ideas of Soos, which included a shrunk moon made out of cheese which was just a soccer ball painted with yellow aerosol, a potato chip with the form of the head of Quentin Trembley, which was just a clay modeled after it and a cursed disc which was literally just a disc with the word "cursed" written onto it with red marker. In the meanwhile Dipper and Stan were in the basement, reading the copies made by the cloning copy machine of Journals #1 and #3 respectively, looking for a monster that could be caught before the Mystery Shack closed its doors.

"Watcha think about gnomes? I bet those little fellas can't even kill a fly" Stan said.

"Believe me, they are not what they seem". Dipper replied.


	3. II: The Stanchurian Competition

They kept looking and looking. Dipper found a very peculiar page he had never seen before. Its title was "Ciphers".

"Maybe the message I heard in my nightmare actually has a meaning. Maybe it's encrypted? With this page I can find out what it says!" Dipper thought.

"Grunkle Stan, I need to, uh, go to the bathroom."

"I'll give you five minutes. If you don't return by then I wi-"

"Yes, yes, I know Grunkle Stan".

He rushed up the stairs, entered the room and shut down the door behind him. Excitement distracts you, and this case proved it. Dipper accidentally entered Grunkle Stan's room. The last time he did Stan grounded him. He tried to open the door but it was locked. He had to figure out a way out of there soon because if he didn't return Stan would show the embarrassing cards to Wendy. He looked for a key to get out. He didn't find it but he found something that was a little more interesting.

"Why would Stan have a notebook? Well, I suppose I'll only find out if I check it out."

He decided to check out the bookmarked page first.

It had a text written in black ink on it: "I had a nightmare again. It feels like if something is trying to mess with my family. I haven't told anyone about this since I don't want to worry them, I mean, the entire mess of Bill just finished. What should I do?"

Dipper couldn't believe it. Stan was having these nightmares too? He switched to the first page. It had a date of 1982. Considering that the bookmarked page was the fourth one, Stanley definitely wasn't too much of a journal writer unlike his twin brother. Dipper dropped the notebook when Stan suddenly came through the door.

"What are you doing here Dipper? I've told you many times tha... wait, is that my notebook? Did you read it?"

"I'm sorry Grunkle Stan, and yes I did, but it made me realize that something big is happening. I'm also having those nightma-"

"Nightmares are just nightmares Dipper, so you better get over it." Stan replied as he grabbed the notebook and tore apart its fourth page and threw it in the trash can. He saved the rest of the notebook in this closet.

"You better come to the basement to help me or you will be grounded for the entire week." said Stan menacingly pointing at Dipper.

Dipper returned to the basement with Stan trying to find the perfect monster to catch, although he wasn't paying any attention to the pages of the journal that didn't have the words "dream" or "nightmare" on them. However, he forced himself to put attention since he wanted to solve the mystery of the nightmare as soon as possible. Also, he was a bit bitter with Stan at that moment, why would he want to hide his nightmares? Actually, that's a question that could be asked to both.

"Grunkle Stan, I think I found the perfect monster!"

...

Mabel, Grunkle Ford and Soos had already created around 10 brand new attractions for the shack by one o'clock.

"Because of the help of both, I will definitely beat Stan on the Stanchurian Competition!" Ford said to Mabel and Soos.

"I feel a little bad for Stan, but at the very least my ideas will finally be displayed!" said Soos.

It was time for the museum to open. Everyone was ready in their assigned positions. Ford was pretty nervous, but he knew it was going to turn out just fine.

Mabel welcomed every visitor, while Ford explained every single attraction to the crowds with the help of Soos.

Everything went fine for around 2 hours. When they were finishing their lunch break Wendy ran to the museum.

"Guys, some dudes came in and stole tons of merchandise from the Gift Shop. They had weapons so I couldn't stop them!" Wendy informed them.

They went to the Gift Shop, and effectively, a good portion of the merchandise was gone. There was also graffiti in the walls and the windows were broken.

"Everything was going okay, why did this had to happen? Fu-"

"Language Grunkle Ford!" Mabel interrupted.

"I'm sorry Mabel, I just can't believe I seriously screwed it up this bad."

"But it's not your fault! Maybe we can solve this if we think on what Stan would do if he was in this situation."

"Knowing Mr. Pines he'd probably try to punch those jerks 'till they gave the merchandise back" Wendy replied.

"Then that's what we're going to do! Everyone, gear up! We're going to get that merchandise back!" Mabel said, encouraging everybody.

Ford was admittedly a bit bitter that Stan was the one who saved the day again, even if it was only spiritually this time.

...

"Hey, Dipper, are you sure that this is seriously a good idea? That thing looked scary in the nerdy book, it kinda gives me shivers you know?"

"Don't worry Grunkle Stan, I've dealt with this creature before. As long as you don't bring water with you and have a mirror in your backpack as emergency then everything will be okay."

Dipper guided the afraid Stan through a dark, deep cave. As they went deeper and deeper they met more darkness, sounds of water dropping and quite a few eye-bats.

"Can't we just catch one of those and get out of here?"

"Nah, eye-bats are boring compared with what habits this cave."

It was already too dark to see anything so Dipper turned on his flashlight. He discovered some ancient paintings about many of the legendary creatures he had met before, like Manotaurs, the Multibear and the creature they were currently looking for, the Gremloblin. Dipper was amazed by all these paintings, although Stanley just ignored them. It made him feel good inside that he wasn't the only one aside from him, Mabel and Ford who knew about these magical, mysterious creatures.

They kept walking and finally found it.

The Gremloblin, the result of a Gremlin + Globlin. It had returned to its regular, way less fierce looking form. Dipper looked at his disproportionately huge, green body and then at his ugly face. Although it was sleeping Dipper still avoided any eye contact. He examined the creature for a bit before talking again. He didn't break any silence since the Gremloblin was very noisy when it slept. Dipper pulled out a chain from his backpack.

"There it is Grunkle Stan! This will be easy, it's sleeping. Help me put this chain around his neck."

Grunkle Stan was pretty weirded out by the supernatural, and this little trip was no exception.

"What? No kid. Y-you know what, I think I-I'm out of here."

"Grunkle Stan, seriously? Stop being a coward and help me! Now if I could jus..."

Dipper accidentally saw the eyes of the Gremloblin. Apparently the discussion awakened it

...

Dipper suddenly appeared on the Fearamid. A giant Bill was grabbing him and Mabel.

"Eeny" Bill said as a the Pine Tree symbol apeared on his eye.

His stomach sank. Both twins tried to slide out of Bill's hand but obviously failed.

"Meeny" A Shooting Star symbol replaced the Pine Tree.

That's when it really hit him. Ford would be risking the entire universe if he let Bill enter to his mind. Either him or Mabel would die.

"Miny" Pine Tree again. That meant, oh no...

"YOU!" Shooting Star.

Bill let go both, but only one of the twins got up when they fell to the floor.

"NO, MABEL!" Both Grunkles shouted.

No, that wasn't real. That wasn't possible. It wasn't...

"Mabel, what are you doing, wake up! We gotta defeat Bill together, remember? Dipper said with teary eyes.

"C'mon Mabel..."

"Mabel..."

...

"WAKE UP DAMMIT!" he said as he finally started crying for real.

"Ahahahahah! You never learn don't you! Jc bru nexhm mvqx esh sjliy!" Cipher said

...

"C'mon Dipper, stay with me!" said Grunkle Stan.

"Dipper, I'm taking you to the hospital" said Stan as he ran out of the cave, carrying Dipper on his shoulders.

"MABEL, WHERE'S MABEL? STAN, YOU GOTTA TAKE ME TO MABEL!" shouted Dipper.

"Relax kiddo, she's fine. I gotta take you to the hospital fir-"

"WE GOTTA SEE MABEL FIRST STAN, PLEASE!"

"Ok, we'll go to the Mystery Shack the... Oh boy."

The Gremloblin was chasing them now. Stan almost saw it directly in the eyes but thankfully he avoided eye contact. Looks like his failed dates did work for something.

The Gremloblin launched trees and rocks at them but Stan avoided them all narrowly like a boss. They finally lost him in the woods next to the Mystery Shack.

"Oh go... god... I'm s... so tired I c... an't... even s... peak... oh god..."

Dipper got off Stan's shoulder and ran to the shack. He had to be sure that it had all been a nightmare again. He had to be sure.

He went upstairs like a lightning bolt and went into their room. She wasn't there. Dipper searched through all the second floor, then the first floor, the attic, the rooftop, the basement, every single bathroom, yet there wasn't a single sign of her anywhere. The last place that was left was the Gift Shop. Oh boy...

"NO! STAN! SOMEBODY TOOK MABEL!"

Stan was just coming into the shack. When he saw his beloved Gift Shop completely destroyed his face adopted a confused and sad look.

"What the heck just happened here?"

"STAN, WE MUST GO AND LOOK FOR HER! ST-"

Stan put a finger on Dipper's mouth, silencing him. He picked up a note left by Ford on the counter.

"Geez, relax. Look, pointdexter left a note. Somebody broke in and stole the merchandise and he just went after the guy ,probably along with Mabel and the rest, that's it. I'm sure that they're fine."

Dipper felt pathetic, but was still a bit worried for his sister.

"Sorry Stan, it's just that the nightmare I had when I saw the Gremloblin was so painful and realistic."

"I get you Dipper. In that nightmare I've been having since a few days ago I... well... I..."

"I also get you Grunkle Stan. If it's simply to hurtful to be experienced again, then there's no need to explain nothing."

"Wise words, nightmares are just nightmares after all, right? C'mon, lets try to digest the fact that Ford won the Stanchurian Contest watching some good ol' TV."

Dipper and Grunkle Stan watched TV the rest of the day. For them, it had honestly been a victory.


	4. III: Not What They Seem

Mabel, Soos, Wendy, and Ford were running through the woods, dodging the trees, trying to not stumble because of the wet dirt, and ignoring Stanford's complaints and scoldings, "Hey, I'm starting to think this isn't a good idea anymore!" and "Can you guys slow down a bit?" among all of them, although he gave up pretty soon. They were following a trail of suspicious footprints marked by very large feet and lots of little, tiny footprints alongside of it.

Each grabbed their favorite weapon back at the Mystery Shack. Mabel took her grappling hook, Soos grabbed a rusty shovel and also a baseball bat (when everyone asked why did he need it if he already had the shovel he replied: "Who knows, we might find a piñata in the way!"), Wendy brought the axe she had previously used when she, Soos and the mystery twins visited Ford's bunker, while Ford didn't bring anything with him because he thought that bringing all of those weapons was way too much since the robbers probably were just some edgy teenagers, although he realized that he accidentally did bring a weapon halfway there, his magnet gun.

"Guys, look!" said Mabel, pointing at something behind a group of tall trees and bushes.

Everybody stopped running and turned their head around to see. The thief had left all the stolen merchandise on a small mount of dirt illuminated by the sun's rays.

"We did it guys!" said Wendy while she cheerfully bumped fists with Mabel and Soos.

"Something doesn't feel right about this..." Ford said to himself.

Mabel turned her head to see Great Uncle Ford's reaction. She thought that he'd feel happy now, but instead he seemed quite worried. This also saddened Mabel since she wanted her Grunkle to feel happy about this because she felt bad for not making a sweater for him. Sure, she wasn't nearly as close with him as she was with Stan, but she still loved him and was part of her family.

"What's wrong Grunkle Ford?" asked Mabel, looking pretty disappointed too.

"It's just that something doesn't seem alright about this. Why would the thief leave all the merchandise on the forest without any kind of protection? That's just shady." he replied just as he started to scratch his chin.

Mabel thought that this was a very valid response, but she still wanted to solve the case to make Grunkle Ford happy.

"Don't worry Grunkle Ford, I'm sure the thief just regretted it!" she said on an unconvincingly determined tone.

Before Ford could even reply she was already running to the area where the merchandise was located, although she couldn't get to her destination because Wendy stopped her just in time.

"Mabel, I want to go on an awesome adventure and kick that jerk's butt just as much as you do, but your Grunkle is right, this looks very shady." said Wendy while she grabbed her shoulder, preventing her from running.

"Yeah, I agree. This doesn't seem like something a teen would set up, so I think we should get out of here before anything happens dudes." said Soos.

"You're right. Let's go back to the Mystery Shack." said Ford, starting to walk back to the shack.

Mabel was aware of the danger, but she wasn't going to give up. She surprisingly managed to get Wendy's hand off her shoulder and ran to the small mount of dirt.

Ford, Soos and Wendy turned their heads around and shouted "MABEL!" at the same time, but that wasn't going to make her direction change.

She got to the mount of dirt and started retrieving some of the smaller merchandise just as the other three ran to her direction, but they were suddenly stopped by a sparkly, pink dust that came out of the gaps that the huge, surrounding trees left between them. They started to feel ver... very... _*yawn*_ sleepy...

...

"Where are we?" asked Wendy, coughing between each word.

Ford, Soos and Wendy's bodies were tied with a huge rope that hold them tightly. They were sitting in a circle. Their butts were comfortable in the nice, bright green grass.

"What is this place?" Soos wondered, as he looked around the foggy, blue and green tunnel they were trapped in. It was formed by a layer of rocks and trees, with many tiny stones, mushrooms, hanging plants and shiny crystals surrounding them. He could also notice a small tunnel formed by two curved trees that leaded to some kind of really tiny bathtub. There were many squirrels moving in circles inside of it. It looked like some sort of lair.

"Well, well, well, looks like our wedding's special guests already woke up!" said a little, funny voice trying to sound dominating, although it didn't succeed to get the point of dominance across at all.

Ford and Wendy couldn't see who was talking because of the way their bodies were tied to each other's, which only allowed one person to face the mysterious, creature who was talking. On this case it was Soos.

Soos face turned into a goddamn mess of horrification and uncontrollable laughing at the same time when he saw the tiny creature, although the laughing won at the end.

"Hi there little dude." greeted Soos after he stopped laughing.

"Little dude you say? You wouldn't be saying that if you knew that our race is a powerful one!... I mean, was." said the little dude with a melancholic and nostalgic tone at the three last words.

"What happened?" asked Soos in a more serious tone.

"Soos, are you serious? Story time for latter. Tell us who trapped us here!" said Wendy.

"Don't worry dude, it's just a little gnome."

"Don't call me dude!"

"Don't call me little!"

Both scoldings were directed fiercely to Soos at the same time.

"Huh, touched a nerve there."

"Could we please stop arguing? Right now our task it to find Mabel." said Stanford, finally joining the conversation.

"Anyways, before I tell my great story I want to present myself. I'm the leader of all the gnomes, or at least the ones that are remaining. My name is Jeff, an-

"Hahaha! I can't believe you guys know about memes! interrupted Soos.

"Shut up you dumb manchild!" said Jeff with a deceiving tone, pointing with his baby finger at Soos.

"GUYS, HELP M-" said the voice of a girl that came from behind the tall trees, interrupted by the little dude.

"Quiet queen! I'm trying to tell my story here. As I was sayin-" said the gnome, clearing his throat between both sentences, however, he couldn't finish the latter one because Mabel, with all the body except her legs and feet tied in a tight rope suddenly appeared behind the gnome. As soon as she finished shaking herself to get some annoying tree branches off her hair, she kicked the Jeff's little, tiny butt. The small, bearded fellow went flying straight to the rope that tied Ford, Wendy and Soos. His pointy, red hat landed just in the right spot, freeing them from the tight rope. Wendy immediately stood up and grabbed Jeff by both of his noodle arms twice as tightly as the rope previously held them, furiously shaking her free, clenched fist in front of the poor gnome's face, while Ford and Soos immediately ran towards Mabel and untied her.

"Thank you so much for freeing me guys. I'm truly sorry for getting you in this mess, but right now we gotta get out of here! I overheard the gnomes while they were tying me. They said that they had some kind of secret weapon!" said Mabel.

"No problem Mabel." replied Grunkle Ford with a face formed by a big smile and curved eyebrows, however, not like the one parents do when they see their kid going to college, but more of a "don't worry, everything will be fine" expression. Mabel looked back at him with the same facial expression.

"Anyways, what secret weapon do you think they have dudes? Maybe it could be some kind of possessed futuristic guy?" asked Soos with a determined look on his face, specially on the last question. It almost felt like if he knew that it was going to be very important in the future.

"Wait, you mean like that guy called, mmm, what was his- WAIT, GOT IT! Braden Brondon! Wait, no, it was Blondar... ehh... Bla... Blaffen?"

Before anybody could say anything else, Jeff got the currently distracted Wendy's hand off his arms, and whistled as soon as he landed on the soft dirt.

"I'm definitely not good at holding stuff..." said Wendy with a small sigh at the end of the sentence.

A horde of small gnomes came to the center of the tunnel, arriving from many different spots of the lair. Some from the gaps that trees formed between them, some from small bushes, unintentionally camouflaged by loose leaves and branches, and a two from the place where Mabel came out from just a few minutes ago. The group of humans walked a bit closer towards each other, acting like if the gnomes had or were some kind of lethal virus. Mabel recognized that one of those two as Shmebulock, while Wendy noticed that the other one of the pair seemed familiar to her.

"Wait, aren't you the gnome who got arrested in jail for trafficking butterflies and giving us that fairy..." said Wendy, interrupted by her own thoughts.

"The fairy...? Come on don't keep us hanging." said Soos impatiently.

"Of course, it all makes sense now. Mabel had told us that these stupid gnomes want her to be their queen, so they made a new plan. They freed this ugly gnome from jail to get some fairy dust and knock us out." said Wendy after a few seconds.

"I thought that the fairy dust the ugly gnome gave you only knocked out unicorns." argued Mabel. She hadn't been there when the ugly gnome explained its function on the gnome tavern called Gnasty's, but Candy and Grenda told her about it later that day.

"That's true, however, it could have the same effects on different species if its chemical composition is altered. My guess is that the fairy dust the ugly gnome gave you has been mixed with a heavily altering material, like corporal hair of..." replied Ford scratching his chin, which was is very usual when he thinks. His face acquired a worried look on when he paused.

"First of all, don't call me ugly gnome, my name is Greg. Second, you weaklings don't know what you're up against!" said the ugly, old gnome Greg.

"Greg's right, and surprisingly you're too six fingered freak! Greg, Shmebulock, bring our secret weapon." commanded gnome leader Jeff.

Greg and Shmebulock disappeared behind the trees, but soon started to come back to the center of the gnome lair. They knew this because of the steps they heard, which definitely didn't belong to any gnome, I mean, have you seen their little legs? Those suckers are tiny. These steps were on the opposite end of the spectrum. So menacing, so powerful that they made everyone, even the gnomes shiver. This monster's big feet made the trees fall, the animals run, and the ground crack and rumble.


End file.
